A National Survey: An Examination of Entrepreneurship Centres in Pakistan

This study is conducted to perform an in-depth analysis of Entrepreneurship Centres (ECs) in Pakistan and to investigate the issues pertaining to the growth and effectiveness of ECs in Pakistan. Furthermore, to establish what needs to be done in order to improve the performance of existing centres. This two-part study looks at the characteristics of the ECs and then examines the differences between formal ECs and informal ECs. The findings indicate that both the formal and informal ECs are in growth phase. The findings of this study will assist students, faculty, staff, administrators, heads, and other stakeholders to understand strengths and weaknesses of Entrepreneurship Centres (ECs) in Pakistan.

According to Minniti, Bygrave and Autio in 2005 entrepreneurship develops in those countries, which have high educational endowments. Therefore, increased investment in entrepreneurial educational infrastructure creates economic values in the society.

Katz highlighted history of Entrepreneurship education in the world in 2003. In his study he also included economic and agricultural literature of 1876. In its true form Entrepreneurship education was started in 1970s. University of Southern California launched the first graduate and undergraduate concentration in entrepreneurship in early 70s.

Katz in 2003 and 2004 said that the increasing prominence of entrepreneurship and related fields (small and family business, corporate entrepreneurship, and so on) can also be seen in the significant rise in the number of endowed positions (chairs or professorships) in entrepreneurship and related fields at colleges and universities, from the first one in 1963, the second in 1975, to 25 in 1987. Non-U.S. positions grew from four in 1991, to 34 in 1999, and to 158 in 2003, for a worldwide total of 563 positions.

Research of Solomon, Weaver, and Fernald in 1994 shows that by the early 1980s, over 300 universities were reporting courses in entrepreneurship and small business and by the 1990s that number grew to 1,050 schools.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTERS

Many development institutions are experimenting to promote entrepreneurship as a way to help individuals. The World Bank and the United States Agency for Development (USAID) have created their own Small and Medium Enterprise divisions to provide funding and entrepreneurial training in developing nations (USAID, 2005; World Bank, 2003). America has promoted entrepreneurship and innovation in the country which has made it economically great.

In Cali, Colombia, Centre for Entrepreneurship Development-ICESI (CDEE-ICESI) with the support of university community works to promote entrepreneurial culture by providing new enterprise development, and entrepreneurial education. In Ahmedabad, India, Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) offers incubation support to businesses.

In Pakistan, one of the entrepreneurial initiatives in academia is Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi, where Centre for Entrepreneurship is established in 2006 for training to set up new businesses. LUMS Entrepreneurship & SME Centre in Lahore has been developed to build an entrepreneurial culture in the country and to support entrepreneurs and SME's for future growth and prosperity of Pakistan.

In the corporate sector the initiatives in Entrepreneurship are also emerging and some of them are as follows: In Karachi, Shell Tameer program has helped about 27000 young entrepreneurs through workshops, seminars and meetings. The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) is a global non-profit organization that promotes entrepreneurship.

Despite the enormous growth of entrepreneurship education throughout the world, no research exists on the current state of entrepreneurship centres in Pakistan. …

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